Students will be able to explain how different densities of water can be affected by two variables.
Students will be able to demonstrate what happens when temperature or salinity of the water changes.
Students will be able to relate the density lab to a real-life scenario to show that deep water circulation is affect by density.
Students will be able to describe certain aspects of the movie The Perfect Storm and show specific examples of how scienctific ideas are incorporated in the movie.
A. Informal Assessment
Students will be observed while they are performing the experiment (inquiry) and while they are filling in their worksheet. I will assess them by asking them questions about the lab via a worksheet (GSE ESS1 (Ext. 3)). This GSE describes how interaction of wind patterns, ocean currents and mountain ranges results in a global pattern of climate. The lab relates to the first part of this GSE.
B. Formal Assessment
The Perfect Storm Project at the end of the unit is the formal assessment and also addresses the application of GSE ESS1 by incorporating geology such as topography under the ocean and how it effects fishing industries.
III. Assessments
A. Description of Informal Assessment
The informal assessment is an observations worksheet. Since different data may yield different results, the key may or may not be accurate, but is attached regardless. Another informal assessment and directions are stated in the following description:
a. Before the lab was begun, students were instructed as to proper micro-pipetting technique to get them familiar with some common laboratory materials. Students were instructed to obtain a pipet and hold it vertically, with the open end facing downward. Students were then instructed to squeeze the head of the pipet fully and then insert it into the liquid that needed transferring. Only after the tip of the pipet was beneath the surface of the liquid could they release their grip to pull the liquid into the pipet. They were then instructed to carefully transfer the liquid to their beaker and drop by drop, slowly add the liquid to the side of the beaker so it would slide down the glass and into the body of the cup. This was done to prevent the mixing as much as possible.
I then walked around the room and informally observed students technique, giving them compliments and constructive criticism so that next time they were required to use a pipet, they could have a prior knowledge base.
I intend to use this information as a means of informally assessing my students to see what they obtained from the lab. I graded for completion on the observations section, since their data cannot be graded for accuracy. I graded for accuracy for the rest of the questions.
.The formal assessment is a project on the movie The Perfect Storm. The packet attached helps students organize the information with some vocabulary words and specific ideas that can sum up what they worked with throughout the unit. The students were given the packet before the movie started. It was explained that they would be doing a project which related scientific ideas learned in class to the movie. They had to answer the first part of the packet using the movie, which was shown in class, and independent research on the computers. The last page states the final requirements for each student, which was to be included on their poster. This was reviewed with them after the movie.
The concept of El Nino was introduced to students in class, which relates to The Perfect Storm because the year of it, 1991, was an El Nino year. More deeply, the project is designed to coax students into making their own connection between the Perfect Storm and scientific concepts such as topography, fish and their population fluctuations, and longitude and latitude. For example, the students were required to find out why the fishermen in the movie went to the Flemish Cap and Grand Banks to fish. They were required to know the topography of this location in order to understand why there was a good fishing industry here. Another example was when students were required to plot each storm system, along with the boat in the movie, onto a map. This incorporated knowledge on longitude and latitude. Ultimately, I used this formal assessment as a sturdy, final point that would be able to tie up all the previous lessons and provide them with more meaning. An example of a specific lesson would be the one about ocean currents (i.e. the Gulf Stream), which was warm, compared to the Labrador current, which influences fishing grounds in the Grand Banks.
The criteria I used were the 3 rubrics, which are attached. Then I created additional rubrics, which provided more room which was filled with teacher comments, depending on what needed commenting. I used this to grade the students and it was eventually handed back to the students. I was looking to see if students could incorporate all aspects and put in on a poster in a presentable fashion. This would help show me if students grasped the idea behind scientific ideas of The Perfect Storm. I was also looking to see if students could relate concepts learned in class to a real life example such as the storm in the year of 1991. Before the project was due, rubrics were handed out to the students, who were able to self assess their own work again to make sure they had all required documents in.
IV. Analysis
A. Description of Class Context
The students were learing about ocean currents and how they circulate. They had finished learning about the atmosphere and the coriolis' effect on the fluid atmosphere. The lab was a transition from the movement of the atmosphere to the movement of water in the hydrosphere and the poster was proof that students could tie the concepts into real-world examples.
B. Analysis of Informal Assessment
Each student wrote something for their observations. The majority did find that the salty, or cool water sunk and that the cool, less dense warm/un-salty water rose. Students struggled slightly with the micro-pipetting technique. Many students tipped their pipets upside-down when carrying them back to their seats. Since water was being used, there was not too much harm in their wrong technique. Students were informally corrected by myself and I circulated many times amongst the class to help students improve their technique to yield better results. Overall, students were observed to be patient and involved in their procedure. There was minimal if any disciplinary action needed between the two Earth Science classes this existed in.
I ended up tweaking the informal assessment for those students who need specific guidance when required to write. Originally, I did not have specific lines for each observation. After one class passed, I realized that students needed more guidance, especially the ones who were not as exposed to making observations. I then added in lines so they could write on them, as well as descriptions above each observation I wanted them to make. I also gave visual demonstrations of micro-pipetting technique for the visual learners and the learners who are distracted easily to they could better focus on my instruction.
C. Analysis of Formal Assessment
Students were able to complete their assignment and had only generic questions as to what was expected of them. For example, they had me elaborate on the "written statement" because they did not know exactly what I wanted for it. Clarification was relatively easy. Students lost the most points when asked to show their references. Some also did not make the connection between what was happening to the populations posed on their fish graphs. I received completed projects from the majority of the class and they were overall very complete, even if a bit inaccurate. The formal assessment required a lot of group collaboration to get students to put together one poster, but simple in the way that it required each student to contribute something to it. The rubrics are very detailed and can give you a better description of what I was looking for specifically. Overall, the poster was designed to condense student understanding of a topic onto a poster that they were to create with the idea behind it that if they had to create and explain their own information, they would learn the information better.
V. Commentary / Reflection
A. Reflections from Informal Assessment
Overall, students did very well in their informal assessment. I did not observe that the procedure was too challenging for them or over their heads. The hardest part was getting them to understand the directions, which can be improved by shortening the word count and giving more visual diagrams before the lab begins.
B. Reflections from Formal Assessment
Students shows a range of performance on their formal assessment. The project was simple enough to enable them to put specifically stated information on the poster and get points, but challenging enough that not all students received perfect grades because their lack of short-answer descriptions that were supposed to go along with the points. They were also able to explain the phenomena using the vocabulary words such as "topography" which was new to them before the class. Although students grasped concept of density, currents and topography under the ocean, they had trouble seeing that fish populations can be effected by this. Once pointed out, however, they understood how topography actually can provide good fishing grounds. Another point of struggle for the students was where they were asked to describe two data sets, which showed sea surface temperature during an El Nino and a Non-El Nino year. Students did not easily make the connection between temperature and El Nino even though they graphed these in class. I believe that students could benefit from another question, which would give them a real-life scenario that would help scaffold their line of thinking in order to tie their data sets to a real life example. A good example might be to describe the warm water during 1912 when the Titanic sank. Because it was an El Nino, it warmed the icebergs and may have influenced drifting ice.
For the low performing student: Students do not seem to know the significance behind their written statements. Students also did not know the major concepts they were working with (i.e. sea surface temperatures are influenced by El Nino). Students made no connection to an example in the world and did not site their work. In their informal assessment, the students sometimes demonstrated proper micro-pipetting technique and other times tipped their pipet upside down.
For the medium performing student: Students make some connection about different scientific concepts and how it related to the perfect storm. An example of this is the accurate description of a map of the 3 storm systems and the Andrea Gail. They acknowledge that fish populations change, but they can not yet see that a specific decline or increase.
For the high performing student: Students see how El Nino and topography can influence fish populations in the Grand Banks and fishermen out to sea. They understand the purpose being the Data Sets and included an accurate description. They also were able to connect in to a real world example and figure out for themselves how high fish populations exist at the cap. In their informal assessment, micro-pipetting technique was flawless and students were able to explain how warm water was rising and sitting on top of their ocean because it was less dense than the cold water.
I have selected 3 posters, which show high, medium, and low-performing projects. For the high-performing student (which corresponds to the high-performing poster), I selected Jessica Still, who received a 95% on her poster. She had a good map with a good description and key attached along with a good written statement and clear pictures. I believe she has an accurate understanding of water temperature variation during an El Nino and Non-El Nino year. I also believe she understands how her fish catch has changed over the years. For the medium-performing student, I selected Allie Blair, who received a 76%. She had a great graph with a good verbal comparison describing her fish population, but was missing some labels on her fish catch graph, which she lost points for. I believe she was not able to decipher what was changing about her fish over the years. I also believe she was not able to describe the 3 storms accurately. For the low performing student, I selected Greg Padula, who received a 51% on his project. Greg was missing all information on his fish and had no references. He had no title or description for his data sets and did not include a key to his map. I believe that he does not see any correlation between El Nino and the Perfect Storm.
VI. Conclusions
Overall, I feel that the informal assessment followed a very successful lab that taught them the most out of all my lessons. They were able to inquire about the activity and it put a sense of wonder into the lesson. They also had an enjoyable time working with tools and being in charge of their own learning, which was excellent and felt very rewarding.
The formal assessment went fairly well, with no students struggling tremendously with getting certain aspects of the poster done. I observed many students struggling to find fish graphs to include on their poster. For the formal assessment, the average score was a 70.2%. The range was from 129/140 to 45/140.
For the Aggregation of data, I chose to separate the class by females and males. The average for the males was 68% and the females was 76%. After assessing the rubrics included on True Outcomes, I found that both sexes received some similar comments. For example, Jessica and Allie both received good comments on their written statements, as well as Greg and Garrett. However, the two boys did not include references. Overall, the girls sited their work more frequently. Both sexes received a zero for some work because they did not have it on their poster. for the low performing students, they were given time in class to print out their information and I frequently visited the ones who were struggling in class to guide their research during the project. Ultimately, it came down to student responsibility. With my aggregation, it seems as if the girls were more likely to follow the directions on the rubric.
Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Samantha DeCuollo
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
Formal Informal Assessments 2009
II. Description of Learning Goals
Students will be able to explain how different densities of water can be affected by two variables.Students will be able to demonstrate what happens when temperature or salinity of the water changes.
Students will be able to relate the density lab to a real-life scenario to show that deep water circulation is affect by density.
Students will be able to describe certain aspects of the movie The Perfect Storm and show specific examples of how scienctific ideas are incorporated in the movie.
A. Informal Assessment
Students will be observed while they are performing the experiment (inquiry) and while they are filling in their worksheet. I will assess them by asking them questions about the lab via a worksheet (GSE ESS1 (Ext. 3)). This GSE describes how interaction of wind patterns, ocean currents and mountain ranges results in a global pattern of climate. The lab relates to the first part of this GSE.B. Formal Assessment
The Perfect Storm Project at the end of the unit is the formal assessment and also addresses the application of GSE ESS1 by incorporating geology such as topography under the ocean and how it effects fishing industries.III. Assessments
A. Description of Informal Assessment
The informal assessment is an observations worksheet. Since different data may yield different results, the key may or may not be accurate, but is attached regardless. Another informal assessment and directions are stated in the following description:a. Before the lab was begun, students were instructed as to proper micro-pipetting technique to get them familiar with some common laboratory materials. Students were instructed to obtain a pipet and hold it vertically, with the open end facing downward. Students were then instructed to squeeze the head of the pipet fully and then insert it into the liquid that needed transferring. Only after the tip of the pipet was beneath the surface of the liquid could they release their grip to pull the liquid into the pipet. They were then instructed to carefully transfer the liquid to their beaker and drop by drop, slowly add the liquid to the side of the beaker so it would slide down the glass and into the body of the cup. This was done to prevent the mixing as much as possible.
I then walked around the room and informally observed students technique, giving them compliments and constructive criticism so that next time they were required to use a pipet, they could have a prior knowledge base.
I intend to use this information as a means of informally assessing my students to see what they obtained from the lab. I graded for completion on the observations section, since their data cannot be graded for accuracy. I graded for accuracy for the rest of the questions.
B. Description of Formal Assessment
- .The formal assessment is a project on the movie The Perfect Storm. The packet attached helps students organize the information with some vocabulary words and specific ideas that can sum up what they worked with throughout the unit. The students were given the packet before the movie started. It was explained that they would be doing a project which related scientific ideas learned in class to the movie. They had to answer the first part of the packet using the movie, which was shown in class, and independent research on the computers. The last page states the final requirements for each student, which was to be included on their poster. This was reviewed with them after the movie.
- The concept of El Nino was introduced to students in class, which relates to The Perfect Storm because the year of it, 1991, was an El Nino year. More deeply, the project is designed to coax students into making their own connection between the Perfect Storm and scientific concepts such as topography, fish and their population fluctuations, and longitude and latitude. For example, the students were required to find out why the fishermen in the movie went to the Flemish Cap and Grand Banks to fish. They were required to know the topography of this location in order to understand why there was a good fishing industry here. Another example was when students were required to plot each storm system, along with the boat in the movie, onto a map. This incorporated knowledge on longitude and latitude. Ultimately, I used this formal assessment as a sturdy, final point that would be able to tie up all the previous lessons and provide them with more meaning. An example of a specific lesson would be the one about ocean currents (i.e. the Gulf Stream), which was warm, compared to the Labrador current, which influences fishing grounds in the Grand Banks.
The criteria I used were the 3 rubrics, which are attached. Then I created additional rubrics, which provided more room which was filled with teacher comments, depending on what needed commenting. I used this to grade the students and it was eventually handed back to the students. I was looking to see if students could incorporate all aspects and put in on a poster in a presentable fashion. This would help show me if students grasped the idea behind scientific ideas of The Perfect Storm. I was also looking to see if students could relate concepts learned in class to a real life example such as the storm in the year of 1991. Before the project was due, rubrics were handed out to the students, who were able to self assess their own work again to make sure they had all required documents in.IV. Analysis
A. Description of Class Context
The students were learing about ocean currents and how they circulate. They had finished learning about the atmosphere and the coriolis' effect on the fluid atmosphere. The lab was a transition from the movement of the atmosphere to the movement of water in the hydrosphere and the poster was proof that students could tie the concepts into real-world examples.B. Analysis of Informal Assessment
Each student wrote something for their observations. The majority did find that the salty, or cool water sunk and that the cool, less dense warm/un-salty water rose. Students struggled slightly with the micro-pipetting technique. Many students tipped their pipets upside-down when carrying them back to their seats. Since water was being used, there was not too much harm in their wrong technique. Students were informally corrected by myself and I circulated many times amongst the class to help students improve their technique to yield better results. Overall, students were observed to be patient and involved in their procedure. There was minimal if any disciplinary action needed between the two Earth Science classes this existed in.I ended up tweaking the informal assessment for those students who need specific guidance when required to write. Originally, I did not have specific lines for each observation. After one class passed, I realized that students needed more guidance, especially the ones who were not as exposed to making observations. I then added in lines so they could write on them, as well as descriptions above each observation I wanted them to make. I also gave visual demonstrations of micro-pipetting technique for the visual learners and the learners who are distracted easily to they could better focus on my instruction.
C. Analysis of Formal Assessment
Students were able to complete their assignment and had only generic questions as to what was expected of them. For example, they had me elaborate on the "written statement" because they did not know exactly what I wanted for it. Clarification was relatively easy. Students lost the most points when asked to show their references. Some also did not make the connection between what was happening to the populations posed on their fish graphs. I received completed projects from the majority of the class and they were overall very complete, even if a bit inaccurate. The formal assessment required a lot of group collaboration to get students to put together one poster, but simple in the way that it required each student to contribute something to it. The rubrics are very detailed and can give you a better description of what I was looking for specifically. Overall, the poster was designed to condense student understanding of a topic onto a poster that they were to create with the idea behind it that if they had to create and explain their own information, they would learn the information better.V. Commentary / Reflection
A. Reflections from Informal Assessment
Overall, students did very well in their informal assessment. I did not observe that the procedure was too challenging for them or over their heads. The hardest part was getting them to understand the directions, which can be improved by shortening the word count and giving more visual diagrams before the lab begins.B. Reflections from Formal Assessment
Students shows a range of performance on their formal assessment. The project was simple enough to enable them to put specifically stated information on the poster and get points, but challenging enough that not all students received perfect grades because their lack of short-answer descriptions that were supposed to go along with the points. They were also able to explain the phenomena using the vocabulary words such as "topography" which was new to them before the class. Although students grasped concept of density, currents and topography under the ocean, they had trouble seeing that fish populations can be effected by this. Once pointed out, however, they understood how topography actually can provide good fishing grounds. Another point of struggle for the students was where they were asked to describe two data sets, which showed sea surface temperature during an El Nino and a Non-El Nino year. Students did not easily make the connection between temperature and El Nino even though they graphed these in class. I believe that students could benefit from another question, which would give them a real-life scenario that would help scaffold their line of thinking in order to tie their data sets to a real life example. A good example might be to describe the warm water during 1912 when the Titanic sank. Because it was an El Nino, it warmed the icebergs and may have influenced drifting ice.For the low performing student: Students do not seem to know the significance behind their written statements. Students also did not know the major concepts they were working with (i.e. sea surface temperatures are influenced by El Nino). Students made no connection to an example in the world and did not site their work. In their informal assessment, the students sometimes demonstrated proper micro-pipetting technique and other times tipped their pipet upside down.
For the medium performing student: Students make some connection about different scientific concepts and how it related to the perfect storm. An example of this is the accurate description of a map of the 3 storm systems and the Andrea Gail. They acknowledge that fish populations change, but they can not yet see that a specific decline or increase.
For the high performing student: Students see how El Nino and topography can influence fish populations in the Grand Banks and fishermen out to sea. They understand the purpose being the Data Sets and included an accurate description. They also were able to connect in to a real world example and figure out for themselves how high fish populations exist at the cap. In their informal assessment, micro-pipetting technique was flawless and students were able to explain how warm water was rising and sitting on top of their ocean because it was less dense than the cold water.
I have selected 3 posters, which show high, medium, and low-performing projects. For the high-performing student (which corresponds to the high-performing poster), I selected Jessica Still, who received a 95% on her poster. She had a good map with a good description and key attached along with a good written statement and clear pictures. I believe she has an accurate understanding of water temperature variation during an El Nino and Non-El Nino year. I also believe she understands how her fish catch has changed over the years. For the medium-performing student, I selected Allie Blair, who received a 76%. She had a great graph with a good verbal comparison describing her fish population, but was missing some labels on her fish catch graph, which she lost points for. I believe she was not able to decipher what was changing about her fish over the years. I also believe she was not able to describe the 3 storms accurately. For the low performing student, I selected Greg Padula, who received a 51% on his project. Greg was missing all information on his fish and had no references. He had no title or description for his data sets and did not include a key to his map. I believe that he does not see any correlation between El Nino and the Perfect Storm.
VI. Conclusions
Overall, I feel that the informal assessment followed a very successful lab that taught them the most out of all my lessons. They were able to inquire about the activity and it put a sense of wonder into the lesson. They also had an enjoyable time working with tools and being in charge of their own learning, which was excellent and felt very rewarding.The formal assessment went fairly well, with no students struggling tremendously with getting certain aspects of the poster done. I observed many students struggling to find fish graphs to include on their poster. For the formal assessment, the average score was a 70.2%. The range was from 129/140 to 45/140.
For the Aggregation of data, I chose to separate the class by females and males. The average for the males was 68% and the females was 76%. After assessing the rubrics included on True Outcomes, I found that both sexes received some similar comments. For example, Jessica and Allie both received good comments on their written statements, as well as Greg and Garrett. However, the two boys did not include references. Overall, the girls sited their work more frequently. Both sexes received a zero for some work because they did not have it on their poster. for the low performing students, they were given time in class to print out their information and I frequently visited the ones who were struggling in class to guide their research during the project. Ultimately, it came down to student responsibility. With my aggregation, it seems as if the girls were more likely to follow the directions on the rubric.